Dr. Colene Trent serves as the Executive Director of the Miss Tennessee Scholarship Competition. She is a tenured Associate Professor of Economics at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. Colene was a two-time First Runner-Up to Miss Alabama and a five-time local titleholder in the Miss Alabama Scholarship Pageant. During her years of competition in Miss Alabama, Colene received over $50,000 in college scholarships which she used in obtaining her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance and Economics as well as her Master of Business Administration degree from the University of North Alabama. Colene received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Mississippi and now teaches classes in microeconomics, international economics, managerial economics, and personal finance. Her research has been published in the Christian Business Academy Review, The Journal of Business, Industry, and Economics, The Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences, and Economics Research International. While at Union University, Colene has received the McAfee School of Business Teaching Excellence Award and the Newell Innovative Teaching Award and has been nominated for Faculty of the Year.

Colene has been a lifelong supporter of the Miss America Organization, first as a fan, then as a contestant, as a mentor and coach, as the Miss Tennessee Princess Program Director, and as a Miss Tennessee Corporate Board Member. She uses her role as Executive Director to ensure that the skills of public speaking, professionalism, mentoring, civic engagement, and community service provided through participation in MAO continue to be available for young women across our great state. In her free time, she loves spending time with her husband, David, who is a worship leader and Christian singer-songwriter. Colene’s greatest joys are her three-year-old son, Paxton, and her one-year-old daughter, Etta.